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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Idaho Family Visit

This post is long overdue, but I was waiting to get photos from my mom and then I had to organize them all (over 200)! So, to make up for my lateness, you'll be getting lots of pictures! Ready? Here goes!

The week of the 4th of July Chase, Chloe and I flew to Idaho, where my brother and his family live, and my parents drove over from Michigan so we could all visit together! It was a heck of a week. Here are some highlights.

First of all, Chloe fell in LOVE with her Uncle Jeff, right off the bat. She is normally not great with strangers, and takes awhile to warm up to them. We were there for maybe an hour and I was holding her because she wouldn't go to anyone else, when all of a sudden she lunged herself out of my arms and into Jeff's! She was all about her Uncle Jeff from that moment on, still taking the majority of the week to warm up to the rest of the family:

She was NOT, however, a fan of the grass:

Every time I bent down to put her in the grass she threw her legs up like that. I find this hilarious. When I was little I HATED the grass. My mom said if I started to fall I would throw my hands up in the air instead of catching myself because I didn't want to touch the grass. I still don't like the feel of grass today. Who knew something like that could be hereditary? Ha ha!

We started celebrating the 4th of July with some fun little fireworks in the yard:

Here we are with Aunt Julia (Jeff's wife) and all the cousins! I love this picture... the moms and all their kids!

After that we went down to the river to see the fireworks, up close and personal:

We were so close that ash actually fell into my hair, and we had a couple close calls with falling sparks. I looked over at Chase after one particular close call and he was about to cry. I said, "Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you," and he said a worried, "Mom, will you save me?" and made me keep my hand on him the rest of the show.

While at Jeff and Julia's the big kids also spent time in the pool...

...while the babies watched!

After a couple days we went to Julia's family cabin, which was beautiful and full of adventure!

Chase got to ride with Uncle Jeff on a dirt bike and a 4-wheeler. I was too terrified to watch, so my mom took photos for me:

We also had a couple campfires and roasted marshmallows. Chase was fascinated with the fire. He loved to watch the sparks fly out of it. My mom snapped this picture right after he told me to watch for the sparks, and very seriously informed to "be patient, Mommy:"

We drove to Yellowstone one day. Rhianna rode with us and shared her iPod with Chase. I love this picture of them sharing headphones on the drive:

We went to the Bear and Wolf Museum, and the grandparents ended up adopting Chase for awhile, because, well.... I needed a break! (The Yellowstone trip was not Chase's shining moment.)

We had some amazing thunderstorms at the cabin, which Chase and Grandma and I all share a deep love for. Chase and Alex had fun sticking their feet outside into the pouring rain:

Then we took the kids fishing...

...but it didn't last long, because apparently Chase had forgotten that virtue of patience he preached to me earlier in the week while watching the fire! He had fun playing by the water, though:

It was a week full of adventure, for sure! The flight home was an adventure in itself, but I think I'll save that for another post. At the end of the day, family is family. You gotta love 'em!